Baby Fish in a bad tank?

M

Minnie

Registered Member
Sep 10, 2004
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I'm new to having fish. I have had a 10 gallon tank, all new, for 4 weeks now. There were originally 5 fish: 2 dwarf blue gouramis, two mickey mouse platys and a cory catfish. I totally have new tank syndrome. The catfish died a couple weeks ago. My ammonia levels are so high that they don't even register on the bottle. I've been using ammo-lock and have ammo-chips in the filter along with the carbon. This past week my nitrite and nitrate levels have finally started going up, so I'm hoping that the bacteria are finally taking care of the ammonia?

Well, tonight my husband comes home and says that the water is looking a little clearer in the tank, finally. I look over and see two tiny mickey mouse platys, almost a half inch long each. So the mystery of the fat platy is solved. But what should I do about the tank water? Wait it out? Keep doing water changes (I've been changing 25-30% every other day to try and dilute the ammonia, etc)? Keep adding ammo-lock? I am at a loss.

Thanks for any advice.
 
Stop adding the ammo-lock and continue to do your water changes on a regular basis. Now that both nitrite and nitrate are detected in your water, you're almost done with the cycling process. Your ammonia level should be dropping pretty quickly but you still have to be careful with the nitrite. Once both ammonia and nitrite drop to 0 and you only detect nitrate, then you're done with the cycle and can do water changes once a week or 2.

Pay attention to your livebearers, they reproduce quickly and can overwhelm a small tank.
 
I'd remove the ammonia chips from your filter, too. By using ammo-lock and chips, you're messing big time with the cycling. You can't cycle properly if you don't let the ammonia go through it's 'cycle' part naturally. Do lots of water changes to keep the ammonia down naturally, as well as the nitrites when they go up.
 
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